BRIAN Lake has attributed much of his good form to the improvement of the Western Bulldogs' backline as a whole.

Lake, who played just five games last year after battling an assortment of injuries, has recaptured the form that earned him All Australian selection in 2009 and 2010.

Watch Brian Lake's full press conference on the media player above or on the Club Mobile App. 

In the past three weeks he has dominated Collingwood hulk Travis Cloke, North Melbourne spearhead Drew Petrie and some lesser Gold Coast opponents.

Lake hasn't just stopped opponents - he has also provided enormous drive, averaging 23 disposals and 10 marks in this period.

And it's no coincidence the Bulldogs' form has improved at the same time.

An injury-free Lake said he was thriving with a new outlook on the game.

"The improvement in the side defensively has really helped myself," he said at Whitten Oval on Tuesday.

"We've had some injuries to some key players down back, and the enjoyment I'm getting out of teaching some of the young guys down there [with] 'Aussie' (Mark Austin) coming into the side and obviously Lukas Markovic earlier in the year, it's given me a new outlook on football and I'm really flourishing from that this year."

A key to the 184-gamer's enlightened perspective was coach Brendan McCartney.

"'Macca' has got a different outlook on football than what we've had in previous years, so that's been great for us to learn new things, even at 30," he said.

And he was speaking from the McCartney songbook when he added: "Now it's all about helping as many teammates as I can to become better footballers. It's my responsibility as a senior player to be passing on my knowledge and experience onto those guys and teaching them."

Lake revealed the lessons of his nightmarish 2011 season hadn’t been lost on him.

"Last year was tough," he said "You could say there was some demons in the back of the mind that [made me think], 'Can I get back to how I was previous to those injuries?'

"There's always doubt, no doubt about that. But the strength I got from learning from mistakes and learning from last year, I could only get better.

"It was a long pre-season [and] nerve-wracking as well getting out there in the first couple of games. But now I'm getting the confidence back in the body [and] the fitness, everything's feeling pretty good."